Infinite Loop —

Steve Jobs blogs a greener Apple, LED-backlit LCDs

Apple's CEO responds to concerns about the company's commitment to the …

In his missive about DRM, Steve Jobs discovered that the website of a Fortune 500 company is a great place to blog, and now he has turned his attention to the environment with his second foray into the blogosphere: A Greener Apple.

Apple has been criticized by some environmental organizations for not being a leader in removing toxic chemicals from its new products, and for not aggressively or properly recycling its old products. Upon investigating Apple’s current practices and progress towards these goals, I was surprised to learn that in many cases Apple is ahead of, or will soon be ahead of, most of its competitors in these areas.

Setting aside the interesting statement from a CEO that he was clueless regarding his company's environmental practices, "some environmental organizations" likely refers to Greenpeace. To date, Apple's relationship with the environmental organization has been difficult. Greenpeace has engaged in the very public "green my Apple" campaign, while also seeking to appeal to greener members of the Apple Board of Directors.

Today, Apple surrendered, or at least decided to be more forthcoming regarding their environmental polices. Regarding the removal of toxic substances in Apple products, we now have the following time line:

We plan to introduce our first Macs with LED backlight technology in 2007.

Regarding recycling, Jobs appears to have obliquely taken issue with a questionable practice Greenpeace has of rating companies based upon what they promise to do, and he even got a dig in at Dell and HP too.

By 2010, Apple may be recycling significantly more than either Dell or HP as a percentage of past sales weight.

All the e-waste we collect in North America is processed in the U.S., and nothing is shipped overseas for disposal.

Apple products are designed using high quality materials that are in high demand from recyclers.

In conclusion, Jobs reiterated Apple's new policy of being forthcoming regarding environmental practices, and also pledged to begin addressing the company's carbon footprint.